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Julia Gillard receives the report from Tim Flannery (left) and Will Steffen. (AAP: Alan Porritt)
Labor and the Greens have seized on a report from the government-appointed Climate Commission to ram home the need for urgent action on climate change.
In its first report, titled The Critical Decade, the commission says the evidence that the planet is warming is now even stronger.
It warns global warming could cause global sea levels to rise up to one metre by the end of the century, higher than previously thought.
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet says the report underlines the need to "get on with it" and backs the Government's plans for a carbon tax.
"This report issued today underlines just how important it is that we tackle climate change, and the best way to do it, the fact remains, is through a carbon price so we can cut pollution and drive investment in clean energy," Mr Combet said.
"The contrast we've got in Australia, of course, is with Tony Abbott who doesn't think we should do anything. "
Greens Senator Christine Milne says she is "buoyed" by the commission's recommendation for a high enough carbon price to drive the economy towards renewables.
But she said realistically, the carbon price would not be high enough to attract investment in renewable energy by itself.
"That's why it has to be carbon price plus, plus, plus. Carbon price, plus protection of forests; carbon price plus a strong incentive for renewables, plus carbon in the landscape," Senator Milne said.
"So many things to do but a big opportunity to do them."
The Opposition, however, was cool on the report.
Deputy Senate Leader Barnaby Joyce said a carbon price would just make people poorer and do nothing to prevent climate change.
He was critical of chief commissioner Tim Flannery, saying he is "on a very comfortable salary" while making people's lives "more miserable".
"I think there is something not quite right about that," Senator Joyce said.
Liberal backbencher Dennis Jensen says the world has not warmed over the past 10 years and climate change action is not needed.
"There are scientists that say at some stage it is inevitable that we are going to be hit by an asteroid. Does that mean we should be taking action against that?" he said.
He says it is prudent to spend money on research but not to impose a tax "that is not going to achieve anything".
To minimise the risk of climate change, the commission says Australia must decarbonise its economy and move to clean energy sources by 2050.
That means carbon emissions must peak in the next few years and then strongly decline.
And while the report acknowledges the science is advancing strongly, it notes there are still questions in the public arena.
"The public still seems to be confused about a few of those issues and I think that's partly due to uninformed opinion," Professor Flannery said.
"You get all sorts of people posing as having some expertise in climate science, whether they be taxi drivers speaking to me or people in the media who don't have the expertise.
"That is clouding the waters a little bit and slowing things down."
Climate scientist and commissioner Professor Will Steffen is concerned the science is being muddied in the media by many with no credentials.
"I don't think we have the luxury anymore of climate denialism. We need to get beyond this fruitless phoney debate in the media," he said.
Professor Steffen says the decisions made between now and 2020 will determine the level of severity of global warming.
"We've got to make some very important policy decisions," he said.
"We have to make some very important investment decisions this decade if we're to take advantage of this fleeting last opportunity to get this situation under control."
The report has also taken a blowtorch to the Opposition's direct action policy.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's plan to reduce pollution is predominantly focused on storing carbon in soils and trees.
The commission says while returning carbon to land ecosystems can help restore degraded soils and improve the land's productivity, it does not equate to reducing fossil fuel emissions.
It says this is because because additional carbon is not permanently removed from the atmosphere-land-ocean cycle and could possibly lock in more severe climate change for the future.
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Chat about this story w/ TalkitaSource: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/23/3224009.htm
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